Lookit, just because someone has a right to believe something unbelievably uneducated that flies in the face of physical laws doesn't mean that they deserve the dignity of being treated like their loony idea is worth taking seriously enough to debate. That's something these 9/11 "truth" folks - as, with unbearable arrogance, they term themselves - need to realize. They're like flat earthers demanding that intelligent people meet them on the field of debate - or the High School football team from nowhere, KS, who demand that the New England Patriots are clearly an inferior football team since they won't come out to Kansas to prove that they're better.

I thought Long Poonstruck was the noted anthropologist who first discovered the practice of enlarging pudenda’s among the Ubangi tribe. As I recall, he went up to the shaman and slapped in the face and said “Snap out of it.”

Further, Ms. Althouse, can you prove that the earth is not the center of the universe? Hmmmn? I thought not. Unless you put your money where your mouth is, none of your assertions are credible. I'll meet you anywhere, any time.

Other letters to the Editor on that page are just as hilarious, to wit:

James Buels: Has academia become the new Inquisition?"Professor Ann Althouse's remarks about Kevin Barrett are not only cruel and uncalled for, they are unethical!"..."Althouse should either agree to debate Barrett in a public forum about the attacks of 9/11, or she should resign!"

----------------

Jeannon Kralj: Barrett is the "best thing" for UW"Kevin Barrett is the best thing that has ever happened to the University of Wisconsin."

-----------------One can never underestimate the intelligence of the 9/11 Truth Movement.

Numerous times I have sought local speakers to engage in this debate and have come up wanting...

I'll bet when Lon Ponschockt uses that technique on prospective dates he gets the same response.Numerous times I have sought local women to engage in a relationship and have come up wanting.

I picture Dwight K. Schrute with a worse haircut.Debate these guys?Best not to antagonize the local loons. Avoid eye contact.Cross to the other side of the street. Hold your keys in your fist, pointy edges out.Walk quickly away.

@bissage - I googled him as well, and the guy seems a bit on the techie side, given his Usenet usage and postings. You'd think he'd use that tech knowledge to use and do a quick look on impact stress on structures.

Go out to the to rim of the universe and look in, you earthcentric beings.You can always go back to your comfort zone when you will. Or visit your local looney bin. It's closer. Asking if there is a doctor in the house? Someone told me I needed one. I guess I am not unique on that order.

They want to "debate", because their info doesn't stand on up to scrutiny, and therefore pummeling the messenger is the only way they can gain any traction.

Besides, how exactly does debate favor truth? Seriously? I'm not asking rhetorically here. The fantasy prone can say "no plane" yadda yadda, and make their point in 2 seconds. A realist would have to produce the witness testimony, photos of the debris, etc., and need 15, 20 minutes just to skim it. Verbal debate is simply a lousy forum for this sort of topic (which is probably why folks like the letter's author pushes for it so hard).

If they want the truth, they can go to the sites I always post in response. Otherwise, truthers are simply trying to make publicity.

This has been a question in the evolution/Creationism "debate" for quite a while. It's often very damaging for evolutionists to formally debate Creationists because many of the Creationists (e.g., Phillip Johnson) are professional debaters and know how to argue for non-specialist audiences which the usually teaching-oriented evolutionists are not very good at. It's far easier to "raise questions" than it is to answer them in detail.

Sorry not to link but it's in the top of CNN's stories -- Bill's confronting a "troofer" again at a campaign stop. Doesn't say if it was today or yesterday -- he gives an excellent rundown of the facts, and adds (my paraphrase) that "we look like idiots denying who murdered the people in the towers, and who continues to murder people around the world today."

I'm inclined to think he's a liability to Hillary's campaign, but I think he should keep up this particular theme. He's a good voice against the idiocy of the "troofers.

A few years ago, Barry Goldwater said that "[t]he best thing [Bill] Clinton could do ... is to shut up.... He has no discipline ... [and i]f he'd let his wife run business, I think he'd be better off." How times have changed!

"Further, Ms. Althouse, can you prove that the earth is not the center of the universe? Hmmmn? I thought not. Unless you put your money where your mouth is, none of your assertions are credible. I'll meet you anywhere, any time."

Not related at all to the post, I just figured some of the conservatives here would like this little quote:

Jesse Jackson, responding to Major League Baseball sending investigators to southern umps hometowns and asking neighbors, among other things, if the umps belong to the KKK"

"Major League Baseball has done a disservice to its progressive social history by equating southern whites with white supremacists," Jackson said in a statement. "I am surprised the professional league which helped change social attitudes in all sports leagues about segregation, by championing Jackie Robinson, would make such a destructive move."

I'm always surprised at how angry and defensive people get around conspiracy theorists. If they're so loony, why is everyone so worried? I don't believe all of what they say, but I appreciate that they're out there. They've made me seriously question the "official" version of events that day from our government.

Conspiracy theorists were also aghast at the Patriots undefeated season. They are cheaters, so they must be doing something illegal. Plus they never cover the spread. By the ghost of Arnold Rothstein there is something going on around here!

"They've made me seriously question the "official" version of events that day from our government."

I love how so much of the fantasy depends on people thinking that the "official story" emanted from the government to begin with. Those weren't government news cameras showing us the collisions on 9/11, nor are those government shills writing papers in Architecture Week, iCivilEngineer, the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, or Engineering News-Record. Not all the eyewitnesses to the planes striking were government employees.

the Salem Witch Trials were my favorite part of history class in elementary school. All those fun movies! That bad acting! And The Crucible!

It's not as if the 9/11 truthers are going after helpless innocents here. I don't think we have anything to worry about with this particular group. Who are they gonna try to hang? The editors of Popular Mechanics and the Bush Administration? Not likely to happen.

Speaking of Google, poor Lon must now live in a world where searches for his name hit this post mocking him #1. I'm sure he enjoyed attacking me in the (piddling) local paper, so let him enjoy his new Google results.

As the Ghost of a Person who has seen many a Lunatick in Bedlam, and who has offer'd up Observations from Time to Time on the Madmen who have frequent'd this, your Theatre of Topicks (as I call it), I believe I may be entitled, with your Permission, to ascend to the Style of the Althouse Inspector of Lunaticks.

You will understand my Forbearance, Madam, of making any Remarks concerning the Army of Cranks and Madmen who inhabit this Age, but who have not attempt'd Entry to your Establishment, or made themselves known to You or your Audience. That Mr. Ponschock hath done so, causes me no little Consternation, for he has not made the usual Entrée amidst Rantings & Ravings, which can offer the analytick Observer no small Matter to treat upon & to make Sport of.

No, Mr. Ponschock's Letter is pithy and point'd: He would have a Debate. That the Subject of the Debate be foolish Humbug to any rational Person, and has been prov'n against Him beyond all Doubt, is of no Importance to Mr Ponschock.

Mr. Ponschock's distemper'd Brain is unquestionably subject to Vain Imaginations: foolish Thoughts, not based upon Anything real. This Condition has the usual Cause of a rise of Melancholick Humors. If I may make bold to prescribe a Cure, this Distemper may be remedied by that noble and famous Confection, Alkermes, made by the Arabians, containing the Grains of Scarlet Oak. I would have Mr. Ponschock make an immediate Journey to Baghdad for the Purpose of procuring this Physick.

As you may see, Madam, I shall spare no Effort in your Service as Inspector of Lunaticks.

Expecting no Compensation, save the kind Words with which You have already graciously favour'd Me,

I think that conspiracy nut-ism is a mental disease like paranoia. Sometimes someone *is* out to get you and caution and a bit of suspicion is a positive survival trait.

Conspiracy sorts see patterns... well, patterns are fundamental to everything from interpreting what our eyes see as pictures to procuring an acceptable cave-person meal, learning agriculture or anything at all. So we like puzzles and we like finding patterns, and we get language for it and all sorts of goodies.

We also get nut cases who are essentially self-pleasuring that corner of their brain.

Modern technology makes it much harder to ignore lunatics than it used to be. The AGW crowd is a sad example that now the loons can be really dangerous and injure all of us. We will be paying out the wazoo for a more believable but no less crazy myth.

I love how so much of the fantasy depends on people thinking that the "official story" emanated from the government to begin with. Those weren't government news cameras showing us the collisions on 9/11, nor are those government shills writing papers in Architecture Week, iCivilEngineer, the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, or Engineering News-Record. Not all the eyewitnesses to the planes striking were government employees.

[shakes head slowly] Oh, Tibore. You are so naive. Don't you think any self-respecting coverup conspiracy would enlist people with no obvious connection to the government? God only knows what they used on those people -- could be anything from an appeal to patriotism to the threat of waterboarding. Remember: the government knows where you live -- they send an agent to your house every day -- and the government knows where your children goes to school (PS 128).

Well, if Sir Archy wants to be the official Althouse Inspector of Lunaticks—and he'll obviously have plenty of scope around here—I nominate Tibore as the Althouse Inspector of Truthers.

Tibore has presented in a number of comments a very elegant, well-researched, and scientifically sound engineering case against Trutherdom. His comments on the subject are absolutely the best we've seen here, and if anyone deserves a title and the thanks of readers, it's Tibore.

On the other hand, physical reality and logical analysis are so hard and sooooo boring! Knowing, just knowing, what really happened confirms that you're the special person you always knew you were.

The AGW crowd is a sad example that now the loons can be really dangerous and injure all of us.

Seriously, I was thinking the exact opposite. Those of you who deny AGW in spite of all the evidence are just like the 9/11 truthers. Yet, here you are accusing the people who have the preponderance of the evidence on their side of being the loons. Not to mention that the global warming deniers have cooked up a conspiracy where the whole theory was concocted by socialists who want to destroy the U.S. by imposing unbearable burdens on it.

"Remember: the government knows where you live -- they send an agent to your house every day -- and the government knows where your children goes to school (PS 128)."

Hehe... you know, Law Student, the funny thing is, last night there was indeed a police car parked in front of my condo, with an officer real close to my door. Turns out he was investigating a neighbor's complaint about something (noise, bumping a car, I don't know), but I had one heckuva fright when I pulled around the corner and saw that! "Why's a cop parked in my spot? Why's an officer right outside my door??!!"

And dammit, it's about time I found out where those munchkins I fathered go. The ex one-night-stand won't even speak to me...

Hey, thanks Theo! I know it seemed overbearing at times, but I just wanted it on record that there were indeed answers to each and every lunacy brought up, and that those answers have actually existed for some time. Which is why I find truthers dishonest; just about everthing I've seen were answered by others before I even knew what a "truther" was.

----

I kinda like Archy's prescriptions. "Alkermes, with Grains of Scarlet Oak". I myself was thinking Haldol with a dose of Valium, or barring that, a clunk on the head plus a wrap-around jacket, but Archy's ideas have that sense of old elegance to them, a real old-time "pharmaceutickal" quality. That's sooooo missing in the treatment of mental illnesses nowadays. :)